RWBY Fanfic: Under STRN's Ring
by khman159
Summary: Team STRN is at their third year at Beacon, which may turn out to be their best yet, as some interesting teams form from this year's newbies, with plenty of potential to even surpass them. Read as Team STRN sets out to help unlock that potential through their adventures in this fan fiction set in the world of RWBY.
1. A New Year

"Happy RWBY Day!" That's what I would say if there were episodes still being released at the time. Anyways, here is the first chapter of my RWBY fanfic "Under STRN's Ring." I hope that people enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfiction. I write this only to improve my writing and creativity, and the hopes that people will enjoy this.

Chapter 1: A New Year

"Finally, it's hard to believe that we're back for a third year now," a young girl stated as she stepped out of the airship, her vibrant blue eyes fixed on Beacon Academy.

The young girl is Stacy Saturn, a Signal Academy graduate, third year leader of Team STRN(pronounced Saturn, like her name), and daughter of the CEO of the Saturn Space Corporation. She wore a sleeveless purple combat dress with dark blue leggings underneath, and black low-heels. She wore a sleeveless jacket that was a lighter shade of purple over her dress, which was adorned with her emblem, a dark purple planet with dark blue rings tilted at a 45 degree angle, with a white rocket ship zooming across perpendicular to the rings. On her arms, she wore black sleeves with small various colored swirls, made to represent different galaxies. Her hair, which goes to her mid-back, is in a ponytail and patterned with stripped purple highlights. On her waist was a belt that carried two chakrams on each hip. She was also currently holding a black backpack in one hand.

"You can say that again. Right now though, I'm just glad that we're off the airship. I was starting to get cramped in there," replied back a large, muscular male.

This is Terrance Rhodes, another graduate from Signal Academy. He is a faunus with orange eyes and matching spiked hair, which two ox horns sprout out of on the sides. He stands easily at seven feet tall, towering over everyone around him. He wears a light brown tank top with orange seams where the sleeves would be, a pair of jeans with tears scattered throughout with orange flares at the bottom of the legs, and dark brown hiking boots. On his tank top, there is a white fist with ox horns sprouting from the sides, with orange aura surrounding it like a fire. He carried a massive weapon that had a giant one-sided sword that had a sharp curve at the top on one side and what looked like a war hammer on the other on his back.

"I wonder if River and Naomi have arrived yet?" Stacy asked, looking around trying to spot their teammates.

"There they are, getting off of the airship sent to Sanctum!" Terrance started to make his way towards their longtime teammates, each step producing a soft thud.

River Mandallow wore a grey oriental style jacket with cyan trimming and embroidery to outline a dragon, along with a pair light brown traditional style pants and black shoes with cyan trimmings. His jet black hair was swayed to the side to slightly cover his right eye with his left eye revealed. One lilac eye was easy to see, but if a person focused though, they could see a hint of the other through the hair. On one sleeve, a cyan colored vertical eye with matching aura glowing around it could be seen.

Naomi Ellsworth, who was standing next to River, was an emerald green eyed girl who stood a little underneath him. To go with her eyes, she wore a matching long sleeve combat dress and low-heels, with a sleeveless lime green jacket over the dress, and matching leggings underneath. Her brown hair went to just above her shoulders where she was able to show off her emerald green tips. With her she carried a white lexicon with her family emblem on the front, a small black lexicon with emerald green etching where a title would go being surrounded by green tentacles.

"Whoa, slow down there big guy," River told Terrance as he raced towards the two, "we know we haven't seen each other since last year, but there isn't any need for us to be crushed by a one man stampede."

"Ha, ha, very funny," replied back a sarcastic Terrance as he proceeded to pick the two up and softly hug them, knowing he could easily crush them on accident. He set them back down as Stacy approached.

"Hey you guys, how've you been?" said Stacy once she arrived.

"We've been great. C'mon, let's go to the cafeteria while we wait for the first-year students to get out of the auditorium," Naomi nudged her head towards the beautiful campus.

-STRN-

"So, how was everyone's summer?" asked an eager Stacy, wanting to catch up with her teammates.

"Well, me and Naomi realized that our hometowns are closer than we thought, so we decided to train together when we weren't with our families spending time with them," answered River.

"The monastery had a nice sparring and training area, so we usually met up halfway and went back. When it got late, River would take me back to our meeting spot and then went our separate ways," added Naomi.

"Some of the teachers from Sanctum heard that I came back and asked that if Naomi and I could do some sparring presentations for the summer students. It was great seeing all the students awestruck by some of the stuff Naomi had learned from being homeschooled by her parents," River bragged about the spell caster.

"I even learned some new spells from my family," Naomi said ecstatically. "Unfortunately, they take a lot of aura right now. Practice makes perfect though. What about you, Stacy?"

"I was a summer intern at daddy's business. I didn't have much time to train with that as well as spending time with the rest of the family, so I just tried to stay on top of what I remembered."

"Hold up, I thought you didn't want to take up the family business," Terrance said confused.

"That doesn't mean I'm not interested in astronomy," Stacy retorted.

River then looked at Terrance's weapon and noticed that the blade was dull. "Skysplitter looks like it's taken a beating."

"Her name is Earthbreaker, Skysplitter is used by Laxaeus in 'Kingdom Hearts'," argued Terrance. "Know the difference. Besides, my weapon is much better."

"You still remember that game?"

"Of course I do! I spent half the time at home during the summer playing it."

"Whatever, they still sound the same to me. So why does it seem like you never took the time to sharpen her?"

"That's where the other half of the summer went. Half the time I spent at home with family, and the other half training in a nearby canyon. By the time I got back home, I was too tired to do anything for caring for her except for some of the basics. I'm heading to the weapons treatment area as soon as I can."

"Speaking of which," interrupted Stacy, "it looks like the first-year students are finished with some of them coming in here, we should make our way to the auditorium now."

The group made their way to the auditorium, and it wasn't long before Headmaster Ozpin along with his assistant, Glynda Goodwitch, made their way to the stage.

"There is nothing that I believe needs to be said," Ozpin started. "However, I am in need of volunteers to assist with tomorrow's initiation. Those of you who do will be instructors who will watch over the first-year students, but will not interfere unless it is absolutely necessary, for they need to be pushed to their limits. If they lose too much aura or are unable to continue with initiation in any way whatsoever, only then will you appear to see that the students are treated properly, we do not need any needless deaths after all. It is important that you are not noticed at any time during initiation, as they will be told that you will not assist in anyway, even if they are to die." There was a brief moment before he left the microphone.

Glynda then announced to the auditorium, "You will be assigned your rooms momentarily, after which you may do as you please. If you wish to help with tomorrow's initiation, please see either me or Ozpin after this for more information. You are dismissed."

"Hey, if it's ok with everyone, I'm gonna go volunteer Team STRN for tomorrow," Stacy asked her teammates, which they all agreed in unison. "Great, you all can find our room and get everything situated then. Someone come find me if I don't catch up."

-STRN-

Team STRN was assigned room 118, the two rooms near them were reserved for a couple of first-year teams, who were going to be made tomorrow. The group continued to catch up until late at night, when Stacy finally intervened.

"Alright you guys, it's actually a little late and we need to be up early tomorrow. Let's call it a night."

"She does have a point," Naomi agreed, looking out the window staring at the moon. "Good night, everyone."

The rest of the group said their good nights as the light was turned off and everyone fell asleep.

Author's Note: I hope that everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. I plan on posting at least one chapter every week on Thursdays, just like how Monty Oum released a new episode in the series every Thursday, but this is not set in stone. I'm not doing this to try to copy him, but it seems at the moment to work best for me as I have a busy schedule with college classes. I do have more written out, but I'm thinking of doing this spacing so that I do have plenty of time to write out each chapter without the pressure of rushing through everything I have planned. Plus, Thursdays are RWBY Day, so this could be something to pass time before the next episode is released later in the day. That is, if this is still continuing when Volume 2 is released, which I am excited for! One more thing, concerning the title of the fanfic, I pretty much hadn't thought of a title until a little before I posted this, and it seemed to be the only one that I liked, even if it may be a little odd. If not clear yet, it will become clear why I decided on this title later on. Anyways, if you have any way I could make this better, I will be more than happy to take your suggestions into consideration. Hope to see you next time in Chapter 2!


	2. Initiation Begins in 5… 4… 3… 2…

Hello again everyone! Khman here, and in celebration of me finishing finals, I decided to post the next chapter a little early. So please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfiction.

Chapter 2: "Initiation Begins in 5... 4... 3... 2..."

"I wonder what they're having in the cafeteria this morning," Terrance mumbled to the rest of the group as they make their way to eat.

"Whatever it is, just leave some for everyone else. We all know how you like to eat," Stacy sarcastically stated.

"Hey, an ox needs to eat plenty to keep his strength up, and I'm no exception."

"He's right, and who knows, something may happen today where we need that unmatched strength of his. It'd be a shame if he couldn't function at his best just because you told him not to eat too much," River argued back to Stacy, supporting Terrance's appetite.

After being treated to breakfast, a delicious feast of pancakes, the group made their way to the locker room before the first-year students could notice them.

"Alright team, grab anything and everything you need, we aren't gonna be able to come back once the first-year students arrive. They're eating breakfast now, so we should have plenty of time to do so," announced Team STRN's leader.

"So your one of the teams that volunteered? Heh, Ozpin must not be asking for much," an all familiar voice said.

"Your one to talk Haytham, seeing as how you have yet to win a single sparring match against me," retorted Stacy, smirking as she turned to see the cringed face of the source of the voice.

The voice was Haytham Cooper, a boy the same age as Stacy, and the leader of Team HDES(pronounced Hades). On his torso, he wore a piece jet black armor and greaves on his legs, wearing nothing underneath the chest piece, showing his arms. He wore grey pants underneath the greaves along with black shoes. On the chest piece, there was a symbol depicting a shadowy figure with red eyes slouching to one side of a golden throne. On the figure's head was a blood red crown tilted to one side. Haytham also wore a pair of large gauntlets over his hands with spiked knuckles. Despite the size, he was able to move his fingers with ease.

Before he could reply, as if adding insult to injury, Stacy lightly threw a chakram onto his chest piece and catching it as it rebounded off.

"You say that now, but this year is going to be different, you'll see," Haytham said pointing a finger at her before retreating back to the rest of his team.

"Didn't he say that last year too?" Terrance asked trying to remember where he had heard that before.

"Yea, but it really wasn't. She still mopped the floor with him," River answered, laughing slightly about all the times he said he would beat their leader only to miserably fail.

"Ah, he's just making idle threats. I wouldn't worry too much about him," Naomi said as if she was trying to comfort someone.

"Who said I was worried?" Stacy asked confidently. "He still hasn't pushed me to use my finisher on him. Unless he trained specifically with me in mind, it's likely the outcome this year will be the same."

"We really can't say that for the rest of his team though, they're actually quite skilled, and who's to say that they have gotten worse this year," Naomi said to the team.

"You can say that again," replied River. "I'm still wondering how Haytham even became leader of HDES."

"Alright team, if everyone's ready, let's head out and get ready," Stacy said as she threw on her backpack.

-STRN-

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff."

River overheard Ozpin continue as he was floating on the side of the cliff out of view, thanks to two small black hole-like objects. Once Ozpin asked for questions, he looked far down to the ground at the rest of Team STRN and nodded at Stacy. The two objects then disappeared as River started to fall down. Just before he hit the ground, another object, this one much larger than the other two, appeared and seemed to slow River's speed almost instantly, only to disappear as fast as it appeared.

"How'd you hold up, Stacy?" River asked.

"I was fine. You were pretty light, so it didn't take that much aura."

"That Singularity Semblance of yours sure comes in handy at times," Terrance pointed out.

River then stated, "Sure does. Anyway, initiation begins in 5... 4... 3... 2..."

Then as if River was controlling it, a loud booming sound was heard as the first student was launched into the sky.

Author's Note: I realized while writing this chapter that it seemed rather short-winded so to speak, only taking up two pages on my program compared to four on chapter one, since there is a rather small timeframe between waking up and initiation beginning. Therefore, I plan on posting the next chapter sometime tomorrow, on Thursday. This is exactly the kind of situation of why I am farther ahead than what is actually posted. I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter, and don't forget to come back if you are interested in reading more tomorrow.


	3. The Race Is On

What's up everyone, Khman here again. Since the last chapter seemed a little short-winded to me, I decided that I would post another chapter today! I had originally planned on posting chapter 2 today and this chapter on Sunday or Monday, but I posted in celebration of finals. I hope that everyone enjoys and I will most likely see everyone next week!

Chapter 3: The Race Is On

"We overheard Team HDES talking close by, and it seems they already know who they're watching," Stacy explained to River. "Haytham seemed pretty interested in that Cardin guy. The other three have Sky Lark, Russel Thrush, and Dove Bronzewing. The other teams seemed to have a plan made out to except for one other. They told me to let them know who we're watching and they'll take the remaining four."

As she talked, students continued to be launched off the cliff into the Emerald Forest. Some time went by when they heard a girl scream in excitement. They looked to see an orange haired girl with a pink skirt and a grenade launcher on her back.

"I guess I'll take her, she seemed just a little slow with that weapon of hers on her back," Terrance stated to the group.

Not long after, another girl was launched, this one clad in what appeared to be amazonian battle armor.

"Wait a minute, that's Pyrrha Nikos!" River exclaimed. "I remember when she started at Sanctum! She's mine, I want to see how well she turned out to be."

A little more time went by, not seeing anyone that seemed to interest them until the last two were launched, Naomi and Stacy made their decisions.

"I'll take the last girl that was launched," Naomi said.

"Very well, I guess I'll take the blonde guy screaming and flailing," Stacy said right after. "It seems like he may need a team leader to watch him anyway. He may get into something pretty bad. I'll tell the other team who isn't being watched." Once your student has reached the temple, meet up about 50ft on the far side."

"Right," the other team members said in unison. After that, each went their separate ways.

-N-

It didn't take long for Naomi to reach the spot that the girl she picked landed. She saw that the girl wore a black combat dress and leggings. She had red highlights in her hair and also wore a red hood. As soon as she hit the ground, the girl took off like a bullet.

"Whoa, she's fast!" Naomi almost screamed surprised, until she remembered that she wasn't supposed to be noticed. "Was that just her alone, or was some of her aura involved?"

She glanced down at her lexicon, opened it to page titled "Semblance", where the word "Speed" was being etched into it. She then breathed a sigh of relief.

_"Good, I was getting worried for a moment," _she thought. _"At least now I may have a chance of keeping up."_

Naomi then heard the voice of the girl, now faint. "Yang! Yang!"

"Well, I better catch up." She took a breath before muttering, "Copycat: Speed."

Both her and the lexicon then lit up for a brief moment. Naomi then gave a smirk, then took off after the girl.

-R-

River managed to make his way up a tree where he predicted Pyrrha would land and found a spot where he could still remain unnoticed. As she falls in his direction, she takes the shield from her back and places it in front of herself.

"_What is she plan- WHOA!"_ River was caught off guard as soon as Pyrrha rammed herself through multiple trees, the first being the one he climbed.

He jumped off the branch he situated himself on and landed on the ground, rolling to the side just before another broken tree hit him.

"Whew, that was a close one," as he said this, he found himself another hiding spot. He looked up to see that Pyrrha landed on a branch and proceeded to look through the iron sights of her rifle.

Pyrrha then stood up as her rifle then mecha-shifted into a javelin. She held her thumb up as if she had found her a target and was taking aim, and then threw it as it fired off a round for extra speed. Some time passed by, before a soft thud was heard, followed by a pitiful sounding "Thank you."

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha exclaimed to the other voice. She then jumped down from her perch on the branch, hit the ground, then proceeded to head in the direction she threw her javelin.

_"That was the boy that Stacy took. I guess it didn't take long for us to regroup then,"_ River thought. After a moment to allow Pyrrha to get some distance as not to be detected by her, River took off after the armor clad girl.

-S-

As she ran, Stacy was able to hear the boy's screaming as he flailed through the air. She thought he was sure to hit the ground when she saw a red and yellow blur cross ed her vision. Next thing she knew, she heard the boy yelp as if being swiftly grabbed, followed by a thud. She found a hiding spot as he yelled, "Thank you," and looked up to see him hanging by his hood on a javelin.

"I'm sorry!" another voice yelled, who Stacy assumed was the distant thrower.

"Well, this looks like it may take awhile, I might as well get comfortable," Stacy whispered to herself, watching the blonde boy struggling to take the javelin out of the tree.

As Stacy predicted, it did take some time before the javelin's owner showed up.

"Isn't that Pyrrha?" Stacy asked as she squinted at the girl who just appeared, hoping it might improve her vision. "Wasn't River watching her?"

"You're right Stacy, I am watching her," River said as he appeared next to her, causing her to jump a little. "It didn't take too long for the first pair to form now did it?"

"I guess not," she replied back. "Since they're together, I can keep watch of them if you want to leave"

"Nah, I'm good. Besides, I've yet to see Pyrrha in action, other than almost killing me with a tree."

"Alright then, we can just... Wait, what?"

"Don't worry about it. What's important is that I'm here."

-N-

"They haven't even been together for a full hour, and these two have already managed to get along as well as two sisters who's only reason to like each other is family relations, be attacked by a group of beowolves, set part of the forest on fire, and have now managed to get themselves lost," Naomi complained about the red caped girl and her partner. The red caped girl was named Ruby, from what she could tell as her partner was attacked by the beowolves.

With her speed, it didn't take long for her to find a partner, but it seemed like this will be a very dysfunctional four years for the two. There was a boy who was a year younger than Naomi who was watching the girl's partner, a girl dressed in a white combat dress with a white jacket over it. Her name apparently was Weiss Schnee, the heiress of the Schnee dust company. Once the two paired up, Naomi told the boy that she could keep watch and he could leave, which he did gladly mentioning something about getting some more sleep.

"Stop treating me like a kid!" Ruby screamed at Weiss.

"Stop acting like a kid!" Weiss screamed right back.

"Well, stop acting like your perfect!"

"I'm. Not. Perfect." Weiss paused for a moment. "Not yet. But I'm still leagues better than you."

As the heiress walked off, it was clear that she hurt the Ruby's feelings as a sad look appears on her face. She then softly mutters just loud enough for Naomi to hear her say "You don't even know me..."

"Wow," was all Naomi was able to spout out, not sure how to react to what was just said.

Naomi then thought of her older sister, who thought the same way as Weiss, even believing she was better than their entire family. Things eventually got too bad, and everyone just seemed to disown and stopped teaching her, putting all their energy on Naomi herself. Upon that, her sister left and removed all ties with the rest of the family who felt no remorse about their decision. Naomi was the only one who wanted to see her again, and even fell into depression for some time. She then started to feel a little like Ruby, sad and a little depressed.

She then proceeded to slowly walk to Weiss, with her head down and still showing a great amount of hurt. It took a moment before Naomi realized she was walking off. "I need to stay focused, I can worry about the past later," Naomi said as she shook off any suppressed feelings before she went to catch up.

Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed reading this. I actually don't have very much to say at the moment, so I will just leave with saying that I hope everyone comes back for chapter 4!


	4. An Interesting Year Pt 1

Hello everyone, Khman here again with another chapter to my fanfic. I honestly almost lost track of what day it was, finishing finals last week has been messing with my internal calendar quite a bit. That's beside the point though, happy RWBY day everyone and please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fan fiction.

Chapter 4: "An Interesting Year" Pt. 1

Terrance managed to find his way to where the orange haired girl was, only to discover that she seemed to be taking her time on finding a partner, skipping throughout the forest without a care in the world.

"I would've thought she would be more worried about finding a partner," he whispered to himself making sure she didn't hear him. When they reached an opening, both the girl and Terrance heard some rustling and found a hiding spot, she up a tree and Terrance in some nearby bushes.

Not long after hiding, a boy wearing a green jacket that looked a little like River's, black hair with a magenta streak on one side and magenta colored eyes appeared in the opening.

"I won't be surprised if these two pair up now," Terrance said to himself. Suddenly the boy stood still as if sensing something. "Crap, he didn't see me did he?" Terrance managed to finish his question just before the black half of a King Taijitu appeared from the tall grass.

The boy went into a stance, preparing for combat as the monster started to twist around him. Just before it struck, he gracefully dodged the King Taijitu's deadly bite. The monster went after him time and time again, each try ending in failure as the boy easily dodged its attacks. As soon as the boy landed on the ground one last time, the King Taijitu started to coil around him, as if trapping the boy.

"Grr, why isn't she helping him, he doesn't stand a chance now?!" Terrance angrily muttered to himself. That's when he discovered that the boy was better off than he thought.

Just before he was completely trapped, the boy once again appeared, this time with a pair of automatic pistols with blades near the front. He shot at the monster, which only angered it as it went after him once more, only to end up with a kick to the face. The snake Grimm recovered from this hit and went for one last strike at the boy, who only dodged once more as it hit the ground instead. Before the King Taijitu knew what was coming, the boy stabbed its head with both blades.

Just when the boy though he was finished, the white half appeared and tried to strike him in order to save its other half. Both heads then went on the offensive as the boy dodged the onslaught. He seemed to be doing good until the white half managed to strike a blow to the boy, causing him to let go of his pistols.

Seeing the perfect time to finish him off, the black half went to take a bite off the boy, only to be stopped by the boy, who used his aura as a shield to protect his hands. He then broke both fangs throwing one to the side and using the other one as a weapon, stabbing the black Taijitu in the eye. Before the black Taijitu could dodge the attack, the boy focused his aura once more into his hands, and struck the fang, causing it to go in one eye and out the other and as a result, its head exploded.

"Well, that's one way to kill a King Taijitu," Terrance mumbled as the boy charged after the white Taijitu and his pistols. "Let's see how he handles the other half now."

-S-R-

"Think this is it?" the blonde boy, who Pyrrha addressed as Jaune, asked her as they stood just outside of an ominous looking cave.

"I know that's not it, but something isn't right with this cave," Stacy mumbled to River. "It feels like we were here when we teamed up during our initiation, doesn't it?"

"We were. We thought just the same as blondie did," River replied back.

"Wasn't there something pretty bad in there?"

Some time went by before a scream was heard inside the cave. Whether it was Pyrrha screaming or Jaune was unknown.

"That's right, a Death Stalker!" River exclaimed. "We need to-"

"No," Stacy said as she put a hand in front of him, keeping River back. "There is some chance of them being able to get away, and we can't interfere unless we know for a fact we need to.

Pyrrha then appeared out from the cave, followed by the Death Stalker, who was carrying a scared Jaune by its stinger.

"That thing got a lot bigger in the past three years," River pointed out. Stacy noticed it too. When they saw it, the massive scorpion Grimm was just a little larger than the two of them, now it was at least three, if not more, times bigger than it was. The two didn't want to deal with it then, so they just outran the monster, this year would be a different matter.

Neither Stacy or River could make anything out, but it seemed like Pyrrha was ordering Jaune about something before it flung the blonde boy off its tail, sending him flying across the forest. Pyrrha then started to retreat after her partner, and the Death Stalker charged in pursuit after her.

"Make sure that Pyrrha is alright, I'll make sure Jaune is safe," Stacy commanded her teammate.

"Got it," was all River was able to spout out before she disappeared. He then muttered to himself, "This is going to be... an interesting year."

-T-

It didn't take long for the boy to take care of the white Taijitu half since he didn't need to worry about his back being attacked by its black half. Once he was able to grab his pistols, it was all downhill for the white half.

"That's quite surprising," Terrance muttered. "He took down both halves of that King Taijitu all by himself. He definitely has some strong aura, and a lot of it too. Still, it's a little upsetting that _she_ didn't help out."

"Brrraa! Brrraa!" The strange noise was then followed by the girl appearing from her hiding spot, hanging upside down by her now formed teammate.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like," the boy mentioned to the girl.

"_Ok, I guess they've known each other for some time then, at least since yesterday, just judging by the conversation,_" Terrance thought at the statement. "_Hold up, did she seriously just try to imitate a sloth?_"

The girl then proceeded to "boop" the boy's nose, after which all three students heard a growl coming from close by.

"Ooh, was that an Ursa?" the girl responded curiously. She then jumped off the branch, and took off running, leaving her teammate behind who was walking in her direction.

"Yea," the ox faunus then said to himself. "This is definitely going to be an interesting year."

-R-

"_She's barely outrunning the thing! Who knows how much longer she'll be able to keep this up!_" River thought to himself, running just out of sight of the red haired rifle/javelin user. On the other hand, he was sure that the Death Stalker was able to see him, but was just too preoccupied with chasing its current prey to even bother going after him.

Every once in a while, the monster would be within a claw's reach and swing at Pyrrha, but she was constantly aware of how close it was to her, making it easy to dodge its attacks. After two or three attempts, the scorpion Grimm would lay back a little bit as if playing with its prey similarly to like how a cat might play with a grounded bird.

"_I wish I could help out, but she seems to be fine at the moment, which means that I can't interfere,_" River thought. "_If I did help out though, Stacy wouldn't be the only one going after my neck._" He thought that since he interfered, Pyrrha would automatically fail, and she'd be furious if she found out who managed to fail her. That meant his only option was to stay back until she was for sure going to die.

-N-

"Why in the hell would either one of them come up with as crazy of an idea as this!" Naomi screamed, knowing that no one else was around to hear except for Ruby and Weiss, who couldn't hear anyways due to the fact that both girls were hanging on to a giant Nevermore. "Are they _wanting_ to die!"

Naomi continued to follow the airborne pair without the use of her semblance, not only because she was running low on her aura, but they were high enough to be seen by her anyway no matter how far. The whole time she followed them, she only thought of how insane of an idea it was to try to hold on to a giant Nevermore.

"If this doesn't turn out to be one hell of an interesting year, I would love to see what one is!" Naomi screamed once more.

Author's Notes: If you did not notice, this chapter as well as the one after it are more or less together. And sorry if this seemed like an abrupt ending, I was struggling a little bit with the endings beginning around here. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Once again, happy RWBY day and I will be back next week!


	5. An Interesting Year Pt 2

Hello again everyone! Khman here with another chapter in my RWBY fanfic. I apologize for a late posting, but I have been taking down Christmas stuff the entire day. Anyways, I hop you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfic.

Chapter 5: "An Interesting Year" Pt. 2

"What the hell is she thinking!" Naomi screamed as Ruby released her grip on the Nevermore, leaving her partner Weiss behind. Naomi looked back down just in time to stop herself from entering the large opening where the forest temple resided.

"Whew, that was close, I don't need to be seen," Naomi sighed in relief. "I guess I should head to our meeting spot."

"Naomi!" she heard a voice whisper. She looked in the direction it was coming from and saw Stacy.

"What are you doing here?" Naomi asked her leader.

"For Jaune," Stacy said as she pointed up just in time for Naomi to see the blonde boy fly straight into Ruby, which landed them both into a tree.

"Ok then," Naomi said worriedly, "I guess we should head behind the temple to our meeting spot.

As the girls make their way, some commotion goes on that they don't pay attention to and River appears next to them.

"I assume that Pyrrha is ok then?" Stacy asked the oriental clad boy.

"If by ok, you mean still alive, then yes. The Death Stalker is still... stalking her though," River said trying to lighten the mood.

When they reach their destination, the group sees Terrance laying down on the ground gasping for air.

"What happened? You seem like you were trying to chase a retreating Boarbatusk," Naomi stated to the ox faunus.

"That girl... is perhaps the most... hyperactive person... in existence," Terrance said between breaths.

"C'mon now, she couldn't have been that bad," Stacy said trying to comfort Terrance.

After regaining his breath, Terrance sat up and screamed "She rode an Ursa for about three quarters of the way here! Now tell me that isn't hyperactive!"

"She rode an Ursa?" River asked.

"Yes," Terrance replied.

"Ursa as in a large Creature of Grimm, Ursa?" Stacy added.

"Yes."

"Ride as in she mounted up on the monster, and it carried her here on its back?" Naomi added.

"Yes! That girl mounted up and rode a large monster that society has named an Ursa and it carried her on its back to this location! That kind of Ursa!" Terrance screamed at his teammates. "Geez, and I thought I had a thick skull."

"Ruby, wait!" one of the first-year students screams. The group looks at the commotion to see the red caped girl is charging head on into the Death Stalker.

"Is she nuts?!" Terrance asked his teammates

"Trust me when I say that she's done worse," Naomi replied.

"Regardless, we need to go save her, she doesn't stand a chance!"

"No," The other three turn to Stacy confused. "If we interfere, she fails."

"But if we don't interfere, she might die!" River argued with his leader.

"Then we'll just have to hope she doesn't die now, won't we?" As Stacy said this, a small smirk formed onto her face. "Besides, look now."

The three then turn around to find that the all but the Death Stalker's massive stinger has disappeared behind a wall of ice. They then see Weiss, the source of the ice, talking back to her partner.

She couldn't make out what was being said, but Naomi assumed that they were trying to settle their differences for a brief moment. "Well it's about time they at least started trying to get along," she said under her breath. Her teammates still heard though, and turned to her about to ask something before she replied, "It's a long story, I'll explain when this is all over."

Once Ruby, Weiss, and another girl with long blonde hair returned to the rest of their group, they discussed their current situation. Once everything was settled, Ruby and Jaune each grabbed a chess piece, which apparently were the relics that Ozpin used for this year's initiation. Ruby then motioned everyone to retreat, not bothering about the trapped Death Stalker and the Nevermore circling over them.

"Alright team, let's keep following them, they haven't finished yet," Stacy said to her teammates.

"Right," everyone else responded in unison.

The first-year students made their way to the cliff as the Nevermore passed by and perched itself on a stone structure over a large chasm. It didn't take much longer for the Death Stalker to tail in behind the first-year students.

"Looks like they got their work cut out for them," River mentioned.

"Well, at least they might stand a chance now," Naomi responded back.

"Don't underestimate them just yet. We have yet to see them all work together," Stacy remarked to her teammates.

They knew she was right, there hasn't been much action except for the Death Stalker chasing Pyrrha, and Terrance mentioned something about the magenta eyed boy single handedly taking out both halves of a King Taijitu. The only proplem was that those incidents were when they were separated, but now that they're together, who knows what will happen.

The group then heard the magenta eyed boy say "Nora, distract it!" The orange haired girl, who they then knew was Nora, immediately reacted, pulling the grenade launcher off her back and began to shoot at the Nevermore on its perch who then flew off.

The Death Stalker almost struck Nora before her partner and a girl dressed in black struck it first, allowing Weiss to grab Nora and use a glyph to escape to the rest of their group nearing a bridge. As the first-year students were going across to the stone structure, the Nevermore appeared and rammed into the bridge, separating the group into two, with Pyrrha, the girl dressed in black, and the magenta eyed boy facing the Death Stalker on one side, and the rest of the group against the Nevermore.

Team STRN continued to study the situation when Terrance notices Nora knock Jaune back and her weapon mecha-shift into a war hammer. She then proceeded to run and jump to the edge of the now broken bridge. Before Terrance, or Jaune for the matter, didn't have any time to reply as she smashed the bridge, stood on the hammer, and launched both her and Jaune over to the Death Stalker. Nora landed a blow on the giant scorpion Grimm, only to be followed up by the monster trying to land a blow with its stinger. Nora gave it another blast from its hammer, causing the stinger to lodge itself into the bridge and knocking Nora back, which managed to knock the girl dressed in black off the side.

River then screamed, "Stacy, aren't you gonna use-"

"Hold up, she's not down yet, look," Stacy interrupted. The group looked back to see that the girl had swung on a structure up to the Nevermore using her weapon.

"Oh, so it seems we might have some sort of a ninja among the group," Naomi chuckled.

Team STRN continued to watch as the two groups faced their opponents. Looking at the Death Stalker fight, it had managed to separate the bridge from the side of the cliff, and the students charged after it. Pyrrha and Jaune seemed to fight with good synchronization, each blocking a massive claw before countering them. The only other boy of the group managed to grab hold of the tail as it tried to strike someone and proceeded to shoot the joint connecting the stinger to the rest of the tail. The Death Stalker tried to defend itself by hiding behind its claws, only to fail as Nora shot them with her grenade launcher. As soon as there was an opening, Pyrrha threw her weapon, now a javelin, into one of its eyes. In pain, the Death Stalker flailed and managed to throw the boy off its tail.

"Ren!" Nora shouted as the boy hit a nearby stone structure hard and then fell to the ground. The group could tell his day was rough, having to use a lot of aura on the King Taijitu, and a follow up fight with the scorpion Grimm didn't help.

The group then saw Jaune look at its stinger, now hanging on by what seemed like a thread. Jaune then yelled "Pyrrha!" Almost immediately, the armor clad girl threw her shield and sliced the stinger right off the rest of the tail, embedding it into the Death Stalker's head. The shield then rebounded off a stone pillar back to its owner, ready for whatever is next.

"Nora, nail it!" Jaune cried once more. The hammer wielder then jumped onto Pyrrha's shield as she crouched, ready for Nora to land on it. Then, in perfect unison, Pyrrha jumped up launch Nora into the air, who was aided by a blast from her hammer. She smashed her hammer hard onto the stinger as she came down, which caused their side of the bridge to collapse, launching Jaune and Pyrrha, who grabbed her javelin mid air as it flew out of the scorpion Grimm's eye, to safe land. Nora then used another blast from her hammer to do the same, landing safely on the other side as the Death Stalker fell to its death.

"That's one monster down," Terrance regarded.

"Yeah, but still one more to go," Stacy added as the hidden group looked over at the other fight.

They see the blonde girl using shotgun gauntlets jump straight into the Nevermore's beak as it passed by, proceeding to shoot at point blank. The girl then jumped out as the massive bird crashed into the side of the nearby cliff. She then traded places with Weiss as she charged after the monster, freezing it in place by its tail with a wall of ice.

As this took place, Ruby seemed to be preparing for something as the ninja girl threw her weapon over to the blonde girl, and made a giant slingshot using two pillars and the ribbon connected to the weapon. Ruby then jumped into the slingshot, using her scythe as footing as Weiss, who was back to the rest of the group, made a black glyph that seemed to grab onto Ruby as she made contact with it.

"Are they planning what I think they are?" Terrance asked his teammates.

"Still saw crazier from her," Naomi replied to the ox faunus.

Ruby was then launched straight at the Nevermore, grabbing its head using her scythe. As she landed on the cliff side, a stream of glyphs appeared, and Ruby started to run up the cliff, using a combination of both the recoil from the scythe's sniper rounds and the glyphs. She put all her might into decapitating the monster once she reached the top of the cliff, landing safely on top along with the Nevermore's head as the rest of the body fell down into the abyss below.

Stacy then smiled and said, "This year, it's going to be an interesting year."

"That's what I said!" her teammates all said at her in unison. They looked at each other and then released a small chuckle at their timing.

-STRN-

"Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark..."

"Those were the guys that HDES were interested in weren't they?" River asked as Headmaster Ozpin continued his congratulatory speech, assigning names to each team, now groups of four like STRN instead of pairs. The group wanted to watch the ceremony, so they managed to sneak into the back without disturbing what was taking place.

"Yeah, and I think I can see why now," Stacy replied. "They seem to have the same atmosphere of them that Haytham and his team have."

"I hope they don't cause too much trouble," Terrance added.

"Hey River, Pyrrha's team is going up now, look," Naomi said interrupting the conversation. She knew that River wanted to see who Pyrrha would be working with.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie," Ozpin stated as the new team walked up on the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... Team JNPR."

Nora proceeded to hug Ren by the neck, which surprised him as he was knocked slightly off balance.

"Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ozpin finished. This clearly surprised the boy, as even Team STRN was able to see how wide his eyes got at the announcement. Pyrrha, who was next to him, punched Jaune in the arm to congratulate him, and managed to knock down the awestruck boy, which produced much laughter among the audience.

"Well, all that's left now is Ruby and her group," Naomi said. "And here they are now."

"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

"Wow, that was unexpected," Stacy said as the announcement was made.

"What, and you weren't supposed to be our unexpected leader?" Terrance said to Stacy. The group then remembered how their initiation went, with Stacy unexpectedly becoming leader of Team STRN in the end.

"Good point," Stacy replied, giggling as she said it.

No one else heard as they were all busy clapping, but the members of Team STRN were able to hear Ozpin accidentally say something through his microphone.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year."

Author's Note: As you have noticed, this is the halfway point in the series with initiation finally over. However, this may or may not be the midpoint for me within the timeframe that the first volume takes place. Well, Happy Holidays everyone, Happy New Year, and I will post the next chapter next year!


	6. The First Day

Hello everyone, Khman here with another chapter in my RWBY fanfic. I hope everyone enjoys!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfic. I also may not have been lazy with writing more since I finished the past semester.

Chapter 6: The First Day

"What's with all that racket?!" Terrance screamed to his long-time roommates, waking up to the commotion from next door.

"I think they're just now unpacking," Naomi stated to her sleepy teammate.

"Well do they have to be so loud?"

"Don't worry about it Terrance, they've been going at it for the past hour," River tried to comfort the ox faunus. "You're just now waking up to it, I don't think you realize how heavy you sleep."

"I'm quite surprised you didn't wake up thanks to the whistle," Stacy admitted.

It wasn't too long before the commotion stopped, only to hear a voice say "It's 8:55 you dunce!"

"Yeah, and we still have another hour and a half before our first class," Terrance retorted.

"Well, you're complaining, so you might as well get up like the rest of us," Stacy said.

"But what am I gonna do for an hour and a half?"

"Well, River and I thought about getting some morning sparring in the workout area, so you could come with us," Naomi said, trying to provide an idea.

"Or you could come with me and try to find our classes," Stacy added.

"Eh, now that I think of it, I am a little hungry," Terrance said as everyone heard his stomach growl. "I might go grab a bite to eat."

"Alright, if you want, come find one of us if you want," Naomi said as she and River left their room, Stacy following shortly after.

-STRN-

"While it is true that this time is meant for sparring practice, we are not setting up matches for the next two weeks," Glynda Goodwitch stated to the students in the amphitheater. "However, if you wish to set up matches for the future, you may see me at any time. You are dismissed for the day, but you may stay and practice if you would like."

"Well that stinks," Terrance said once she was finished, "I was hoping to get started right away."

"As much as we all feel the same as you do, there are some students who may need these two weeks to practice," Stacy said, defending the entire student body.

"Well, in the meantime, we can set up matches if we want," Naomi added. "I think I'm gonna sign up to spar that Ruby girl," she said as she pointed out the scythe wielder, along with the rest of Team RWBY on the other side of the amphitheater.

"They all seem to be interesting matches, seeing how things went for them during initiation," Stacy said. "I think I may try my hand against that ninja girl. What was her name again?"

"The faunus girl? That's Blake I believe," Terrance answered.

"She's a faunus? How do you know?" River asked.

"She's hiding cat ears inside her bow," Terrance answered again. "I don't think she wants anyone to know though, we do have it hard since some humans still don't accept us."

"People seem to accept you though," Stacy said.

"Only because I tower over everyone. Anyway, I may try going against that Schnee heiress, I think it was Weiss. She seems to be rather peculiar."

"I guess that leaves me with Yang then," River said.

"So that settles it then," Stacy said with excitement. "It's Team STRN versus Team RWBY. I'll go tell Glynda the match-ups we want and we'll start training."

-STRN-

"Finally, it's about time we got out!" Terrance exclaimed as the group finished a lecture in Professor Port's and started to eat dinner at the cafeteria.

"C'mon now, it wasn't that bad," Naomi said trying to defend the portly man.

"Naomi, I think you're the only one that doesn't agree with the statement that Professor Port's lectures feel like five hours instead of one," River stated, which Stacy and Terrance agreed with a nod.

"I guess it's only because I'm so used to my family teaching me. They seem to drone on at times."

"Regardless, sitting in class all day started to make me cramp a little," Terrance said as he stretched out his arms. "I think I'm gonna hit the training area if you guys want to join me."

"That seems like a good idea," Stacy agreed. "I haven't had much time to practice, I may be a little rusty from all the time off from this summer. I need to resharpen my skills if I want to put up a good fight for Blake."

"We may join you, but River and I are going to walk around campus a little bit after we finish here," Naomi said as she finished taking a drink of soda.

"We are?" River asked, which was responded with a glare from the spell caster. "I mean yeah, of course we are."

River's response made Stacy and Terrance laugh a little at the sight of him cowering a little from the spell caster.

The group continued to eat, recounting the day and thinking of any assignments they should do as soon as time allows them. Being their third year at Beacon, Team STRN managed to schedule the majority of their classes together, rather than being separated a lot the first year. This made things much easier, allowing them to help each other with assignments and other projects. Similar assignment were not the only thing, they also wanted to be able to grow more as friends, as well as a team. They wanted to help each other out, focus on each other's strengths and discover weaknesses that can be improved and covered by another. It was because of this that Team STRN has been considered one of the most battle ready teams at Beacon, and everyone knew.

"Well, that was a nice meal," Terrance stated satisfied, rubbing his stomach as if he was carrying a child. "Now that that's finished, it's time for some training."

"Alright, don't go too hard though, you don't want to cramp up when your in the middle of something," Stacy instructed smiling at him.

"Whatever you say boss," the ox faunus responded laughing at his leader's comment. The two then left for the training area, leaving River and Naomi alone.

"I guess we should head out too, the staff may lock us in here if we don't," River said, watching all the cafeteria workers finishing up their business.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Naomi replied back.

The two remaining members left and went outside, for their walk around Beacon. Not long after they were alone, the two stopped by a large fountain before Naomi asked "So why didn't you tell them back there?"

"Sorry," River replied, "I'm still finding it a little odd right now. We've all been friends for quite a while, don't you think they'll find it a little weird?"

"Of course I do," Naomi immediately responded, giving him a peck on the cheek. "They'll grow used to it though, I'm sure. It'll just take some time. And who knows, they may take it easier than you think. Just don't worry about it."

"You're probably right, I'm just overreacting," River relaxed as the two continued their leisurely walk.

-STRN-

It was late at night when Naomi opened the door. Once inside, River followed shortly after saying "Stacy, Terrance, there's something-"

Naomi interrupted him, shushing and pointing to their teammates beds, which held both Stacy and Terrance asleep.

"They probably had a hard workout," Naomi whispered. "We should let them rest. Don't worry, we can tell them some other time."

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. As I sarcastically said within the disclaimer, I have been very lazy with writing new chapters ever since I finished the past semester. No need for you to worry just yet though, as I have one more chapter that I have made plenty in advance. Anyways, I will see everyone again next week!


	7. RWBY vs STRN Pt 1

Hello again, Khman here with another chapter of my fanfic. I hope that everyone who has read it so far has enjoyed doing so. Well, please enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this story.

Chapter 7: RWBY vs. STRN Part 1

"I appreciate your patience the past two weeks, but now we are ready to begin the first sparring matches today," Glynda Goodwitch stated to an eager crowd of students ready to see some action. "The first match will be between Weiss Schnee of Team RWBY, and Terrance Rhodes of Team STRN. Could both students please come up to the stage now."

As the towering faunus and the heiress both approached the stage, there was a commotion amongst the students, wondering why a member one of the best combat teams at Beacon would go up against a first-year student. However, they didn't know what happened during initiation, unlike Team STRN.

Both students took their respective positions across each other on the stage, where Terrance could see Weiss analyzing him, trying to figure out how he may fight. As this took place, Terrance saw Glynda cast protection spells on them from the corner of his eye.

Above the stage, an image of the two students appeared with bars representing their aura. A second later, Terrance heard Glynda say "You may draw your weapons and begin when ready."

Almost immediately, Terrance saw Weiss draw her weapon, a rapier with what looked like a revolver barrel in the guard with various colors in each slot. She made a glyph appear under her feet, and she darted after him.

Terrance rolled to the side, easily dodging Weiss's attack and thought "_She's fast, this oughta be fun._" A large grin appeared on his face at the thought. He pulled out Earthbreaker, taking the massive weapon in both hands and charged after the heiress.

Weiss immediately countered by placing a black glyph right onto Terrance, which seemed to stop his charge.

Terrance felt the glyph pull him back as it appeared, but he knew he could easily escape its pull. Slowly taking one step at a time, he yelled "It's gonna take a lot more than this to slow me down Snowy!"

Weiss made a face at the name that her opponent gave her, but regained her composure shortly after and replied "Then I guess I will have to make this quick."

Weiss brought up her rapier as the barrel rotated, causing both it and its wielder to glow a bright yellow. Terrance then saw her disappear and reappear just as fast right in front of him. The sight of her current speed surprised him, but not as much as the feeling of cold steel strike his body as the heiress stabbed him. The wound would have surely caused a good amount of damage to him if it wasn't for Glynda's protection spell.

"She's done it now," Stacy said smiling to her other two teammates. "Let's just hope he doesn't go overboard though."

There was a pause in the fight, but then Weiss was surprised when she heard her opponent laughing. He brought his head up with a large smile and what appeared to be an insane look in his eyes.

"Yeah... This oughta be real fun!" Terrance screamed. He then released one hand from Earthbreaker and proceeded to backfist the heiress, knocking her back across the stage and causing her to release her rapier, leaving it "inside" Terrance with Glynda's spell wrapped around the blade.

Terrance screamed once more as a large amount of orange aura surrounded him. He then grabbed the rapier, pulled it away from him, and threw it back to Weiss as she stood up. Terrance then threw up his massive weapon, catching it underhanded as it started to mecha-shift. Once it finished, the large faunus was carrying a large chain gun that he started to rev up.

Weiss knew that her only option was to keep running circles around him, getting closer in the process as the chain gun took fire, releasing a massive barrage of bullets formed by compact dust.

When he realized the heiress was getting closer, Terrance stopped using the chain gun form of Earthbreaker, throwing it up once more to catch the weapon in its melee form. Charging after her, he then swung the massive weapon in her direction. Weiss quickly reacted to the attack, as she and her weapon began to glow red, she brought it up to block her opponent's massive weapon. As the two made contact, Earthbreaker was blown back with enough force to cause Terrance to stumble to the side.

"_That's an interesting technique,_" Terrance thought once he regained his balance. "_However, it'll be for naught this time._" Terrance then repeated his last move, charging after the heiress once more. She and her weapon began to glow red once more, preparing to black again. As the weapons made contact, Terrance used the force against him to his advantage, pivoting in place and landing a powerful backfist on Weiss, causing her to fly off the stage over the crowd of students.

As if prepared for what was taking place, Naomi stood up, opening her lexicon and pointing at the flying heiress. She then stopped in mid-air and began slowly floating down.

Glynda then spoke over the students saying "As you can see, Mr. Rhodes was able to knock Miss Schnee out of bounds. In a tournament style match, this would mean that she is automatically disqualified and cannot continue the match."

"It's a good thing I wrote down that 'catching' spell into Shining Shroud. Never know when I'm gonna need it, especially when Terrance gets like this," Naomi said to her teammates smiling.

Once Weiss touched the ground Stacy turned to her and said "Sorry about that. As you can tell, Terrance really loves to fight."

The heiress turned away from the apologizing leader and walked back to the rest of her own team.

"Geez, what's her problem?" River asked as she walked away.

"Now," Glynda proceeded as Terrance returned to his team, "for the next match, may I please have River Mandallow of Team STRN and Yang Xiao-Long of Team RWBY come to the stage."

Once more, a commotion rose as both River and Yang stood up, students wondering why they would even bother going up against first-year students. As he walked by, River just ignored the questions he heard throughout the auditorium and made his way to the stage.

Like the previous match, Glynda cast her protection spell on the students and proceeded to say "You may begin when ready."

"Well, ladies first," River said with a smirk on his face.

"Wow, such a gentleman," Yang replied. "That's very kind of-"

Before Yang could finish what she was saying, River charged after her, trying to place a palm strike charged with electricity at her stomach, but missed.

"That's what I would say if we weren't in the middle of combat," River said, his smirk still showing.

Yang replied back with a smirk of her own as she proceeded to punch River in the same spot, but missed much like her opponent as he took a step back to prepare his next attack. Both students continued to fight, using strikes and counter strikes one after the other, but none hitting their target.

"Wow," Terrance said astonished, "they seem to be fighting on an even level right now."

"Right now, yes," Stacy replied to the ox faunus. "Just wait for it though."

Eventually, the sparring students separated from each other and River immediately started shooting burst of fire, ice, and lightning from his palms to his opponent, while Yang proceeded to shoot fiery shotgun shells out from her gauntlets in the opposite direction. A flurry of bullets was all the audience could see as both students continued firing at each other.

"It looks like he's testing her," Naomi said. "He usually doesn't miss his targets."

As the screen of bullets disappeared, both students appeared exhausted. Yang then proceeded to ask, "Alright, it seems we aren't getting anywhere here. How about we just kiss and make up, call it a tie."

"_Something's not right, but I'll go along with it_," River thought before replying, "Sure, I guess."

The two approached each other and Yang leaned over closing her eyes ready for the kiss. River slowly leaned in with his eyes closed as well. Then, in a flash, Yang found herself on the ground, eyes wide and wondering what happened. She looked at River, who opened his eyes which were now surrounded by cyan colored aura.

"My aura vision allows me to see, even when others are unable to. They also allow me to find the vital points of any opponent I face, and stop the flow of aura if said opponent has aura," River explained. "I knew something wasn't right with what you said, so I activated it as soon as you closed your eyes. When I closed my eyes, I could still easily see your fist moving for what could have been the finishing move. I will say though, this was a good match." River then reached his hand down to assist his opponent back up.

Yang gave a brief look of displeasure due to her plan being foiled, but then smiled as she took River's hand replying back "Yeah, it was. Thanks for the good match." As she got up, Glynda declared the match over.

"Since Mr. Mandallow was able to successfully take down Miss Xiao-Long, she would be considered defeated in the match," Glynda paused for a moment and then continued. "Keep these things in mind students, as this may provide useful in any tournaments you participate in. We will now have a five minute break to allow students to walk around and relieve any tension. Also, if any student wishes to set up a match who has yet to do so, please come see me before the next match begins."

Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed reading this. Just a note, I really couldn't think of anything for the spell Naomi used to catch Weiss in the air, so I just went with simplicity and wrote that it was a catching spell. If I come up with anything better and use the spell in the future, I will change the name or that spell. Some other things, this is actually the last chapter I wrote in advance, and knowing my current lazy self, I will not write anything until I head back to my college campus this upcoming Monday if I get any time before classes start. However, I will try to finish by sometime next Thursday to at least try to stay on schedule. One more thing, my D&D group back at home has finished what most of the group, including myself, believes to be an awesome campaign. Upon finishing it, I decided that it would be a good idea to more or less "document" it by possibly posting it here. Whether it actually happens or not, I am unsure, but I will post about it later if I do. Anyways, happy RWBY day, and I hope that volume 2 comes out soon as is just as great as the first!


	8. RWBY vs STRN Pt 2

Hello everyone, Khman here with the next chapter of my fanfic. As stated then, the previous chapter was the last I had written in advance, so I was forced to start writing eventually if I wanted to post this one on time. I am quite surprised to say that I finished this in one day, which I am normally not able to write this much in that amount of time. But enough about me, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfic.

Chapter 8: RWBY vs. STRN Part 2

Once Glynda dismissed the students for the break, everyone got up at once to converse with their fellow classmates. Some groups talked about recent events, their summer breaks, etc. However, other groups proceeded to talk about the previous two matches.

"It seems Yang has quite a bit of potential," River mentioned to the rest of his group as he approached them. "I would really enjoy watching her progress while she is here."

"I'd say the same for the ice princess," Terrance said, referring to Weiss. "For this year only being her first, her glyphs were very strong. Remember that match last year, the one I went completely berserk?"

"Who doesn't remember that?" Naomi asked rhetorically.

"Goodwitch had to use one of her glyphs on you to stop charging after your opponent," Stacy added.

"Exactly. I'm stronger this year for sure, but Weiss's glyph was just as strong, if not stronger, than Goodwitch's, and she's been at this school for a long time. Not just as a professor, but a student too."

"Wow, you really think so?" Naomi asked the faunus, interested in what he really thought.

"I know so. I was the only one who Glynda had to use one of her glyphs on here, as well as the first one to experience Weiss's glyph here."

"Hello to you all Team STRN," the group all turned at once to see Glynda Goodwitch approaching them. "Those matches turned out to be quite interesting, but I must ask you all something. Why one of the fist year teams? I would have expected you to ask to be put up against one of the veteran teams, like HDES."

"During initiation, we all saw that this group, along with Team JNPR, were different from the others. We saw both RWBY and JNPR each take down a giant Nevermore and a Death Stalker respectively," Stacy replied to the blonde professor.

"I see, so I assume that they have lived up to their expectations so far?" Glynda asked once more.

"That and more it seems," Naomi replied. "Terrance said that Weiss's glyphs were very strong for this only being her first year here. I think it's safe to say that all of us agree that we think you should pay special attention to her, seeing as how both of you use glyphs."

"I plan to do just that," Glynda replied as the group of students nodded their heads in agreement. "However, just because I'm watching her, doesn't mean that you should slack off yourselves if you plan to do the same."

"Of course," River agreed. "We wouldn't have it any other way."

A small smile appeared on Glynda's face before she replied back, "Well, I should head back to the stage. You and Miss Belladonna will be the next match Miss Saturn, followed by Miss Ellsworth and Miss Rose. I suggest you two prepare." She then proceeded to walk back to the stage.

"We should go ahead and follow her in if that's the case then," Naomi mentioned. Once the group started making their way back, the rest of the audience followed.

"As soon as everyone takes their seats, we will begin the next match between Stacy Saturn of Team STRN and Blake Belladonna of Team RWBY," Glynda announced to the audience. As everyone sat down, the two girls announced made their way to the stage. Once everything was prepared for the following match, Glynda announced "You may begin when ready."

In an instant, both students drew their weapons and began their proper attacks. Blake drew her sword from her back, while Stacy drew a large chain of chakrams from her backpack. As Blake charged after Stacy, the veteran student did the exact opposite, doing what she could to stay away from the first-year student. Every once in a while, Stacy would lash out with her "whip" to try to slow her down, only for it to be blocked by her opponents blade.

"_Wow, she's fast,_" Stacy thought. "_I guess I need to kick this up a notch._" Suddenly, much to Blake's surprise, Stacy's chain of chakrams began to split, link by link, as the free chakrams began to float around with small black spheres inside.

As soon as all the chakrams were separated, Stacy began to move her hands, causing the chakrams to move around in mid-air. She then explained, "My Singularity Semblance allows me to create black holes of all sizes and strengths, and move them as I please. They normally suck anything that crosses their event horizons, but my chakrams are immune to this effect due to some of my aura being stored inside them."

Blake gave a confused look at Stacy for a moment, but immediately realized what she could do. As soon as the first chakram started to dart towards her, Blake managed to gracefully dodge it, creating an afterimage in her place that seemed to take the blow. One by one, Blake would see her opponent manipulate her weapons to dart for her, only for them to be dodged and strike an afterimage.

"_She's really good at defense, now let's see some offense,_" Stacy thought. She then started to make her chakrams link together once more. Once the chain was completed, she assumed a defensive stance holding each end of the chain in each hand as it floated around her body. She then gave a small smirk to her opponent and said, "Your move, Blake."

Without hesitation, Blake went on the offensive and charged after Stacy. As she went to strike with her sword, the floating chain began to bend and move blocking her attack. Blake attempted to attack her opponent in every direction using her afterimages to try to confuse her, but to no avail as each strike was blocked by the moving chain.

This went on for about a minute before Stacy started to break her stance to prepare for a counter strike. "_I need to time this just right,_" Stacy thought. She then shouted "Meteor Shower!" causing the chakrams to separate all at once into a large burst. Blake managed to dodge the outburst but was stunned when she saw them start to head higher up.

While Blake was distracted by all the smaller chakrams, Stacy pulled out what looked like part of a large chakram, which began to shift into just that.

"Is she really gonna do that?" River asked the his other two teammates.

"It appears so," Naomi replied back.

"I guess she's in for it now," Terrance said staring at the battle taking place with amazed eyes.

The chakrams then stopped rising, pausing in mid air for a moment, then started flying towards Blake at the speed of bullets. Knowing it was all she could do, Blake put all her effort into dodging the flying discs, creating afterimages one after another.

Once she found the perfect moment Stacy leaped into the air taking the chakram and throwing it towards Blake. The large ring found its target, as it began to float around Blake at ankle level, moving wherever she would. Once she landed, Stacy gave a small smirk to herself and muttered, "E Ring, set."

As Blake continued to dodge the shower or small chakrams, as well as attempt to escape the ring floating around her, Stacy pulled out another large chakram, this one slightly smaller than the last, and proceeded to repeat the process of the last. Again, the ring found its target and once it surrounded her at about knee level, it refused to let Blake escape.

"D Ring, set," Stacy said. She then explained, "Just give up, you can't escape my Orbital Rings once they reach their target. You can only try to prolong this battle by trying to avoid the rest."

Blake gave a look of disgust to her opponent. Looking around, she then realized that the small chakrams had stopped falling. She looked back at Stacy who had three more large chakrams ready, one in each hand and the last floating behind her. Stacy manipulated the ring behind her, launching it towards the ninja. Blake then vaulted over the chakram launched at her, but was disgusted again as Stacy jumped into the air once more, throwing the other two rings just right so that Blake would jump into them. She knew that not even her dodging with an afterimage would keep her from going straight into them.

"C Ring, set. B Ring, set." As Stacy announced this Blake saw her catch the last chakram.

"Well, I assume that the one your holding now is the A Ring, so I'm guessing you will have to come up with some other distraction to put that around me, right?" Blake spoke with a smirk on her face the whole time, confident she could easily dodge the last one.

"Who said that this had to be the A Ring," Stacy replied back. Seeing that she obviously caught Blake off guard, Stacy manipulated one of the chakrams on the ground, causing it to dart and stop just above Blake's head. "A Ring, set."

Stacy dropped the chakram she was holding, placing both hands in front her towards Blake shouting, "It's over! Finishing Move! Event Horizon Decimation!" A small black hole began to appear within the smallest chakram, which then slowly became a growing sphere. However, just as soon as it appeared, Stacy made the singularity disappear and said, "I win." The large rings surrounding Blake then dropped to the ground, allowing their prisoner to easily step over them.

Glynda then proceeded to explain, "As you have all just witnessed, Miss Saturn performed a 'finishing move' on Miss Belladonna. Seeing as how such techniques can cause severe injuries or even death under normal circumstances, the fighter using said technique must cancel it before it can actually cause severe damage. Despite this, tournament judges determine this to be a victory for the one who used the technique. However, if the technique does cause severe damage to the opponent, it is an automatic disqualification of the one who used it, and the opponent is allowed to advance if able."

As Glynda was talking to the audience, Stacy walked over to Blake and said, "Thank you for the great match. My team and I all knew that both your team and Team JNPR have great potential, which your team has shown to everyone here today so far. If it means anything to you, you're the first person that used that technique on here, despite this being my third year at Beacon."

Smiling at Stacy's compliments, Blake warmly responded back, "Thank you for what you've said, I will be sure to tell my friends that." She then proceeded to bow, which Stacy mirrored in return. Both students then made their way off stage back to their teams.

Glynda watched the two girls make their way to their seats before announcing, "Now, for the final match, may I please have Naomi Ellsworth of Team STRN and Ruby Rose of Team RWBY come to the stage."

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I decided to leave this on a bit of a cliffhanger, as if nobody hates that at all *sarcasm*. For starters, for anyone who has read the character bios, I changed the name of Stacy's weapons from Saturn's Rings to Orbital Rings. It isn't much of a change, but it is still a change, and the name still fits. If anyone has wondered if I plan on having STRN fight JNPR, I have thought about that, but I will most likely not do it until much later if at all rather than now. I know that this stream of four fights in a row might be a little boring, and four more fights right after this would only drag on even further. One more thing, I might do a little more with Team HDES, so I will need three more OCs since Haytham has already been made, somewhat. Rather than I do it myself, I will go ahead and ask for anyone interested to make some OCs. If I don't get anything, it's no problem, but I want to see what other people might have in mind and give someone an opportunity to have a part in this, even if it is a small one. Thank you for reading this long note, and as for the all infamous cliffhanger: If you want to see how the final match turns out, you will just have to come back next week!


	9. The Final Match

Hello again everyone, Khman here with what was perhaps my favorite chapter to write so far. I hope that you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other references made within this fanfic.

Chapter 9: The Final Match- The Speedster Prodigy and the Copycat Sorceress

As Glynda announced the final two combatants, both girls proceeded to walk to the stage as students throughout the audience watched, awaiting to see what would happen in the coming match. They first match started things off fair, but the second and third grew in decency as they continued, growing more exciting by the second. Now, the crowd was hoping for a great final match.

"C'mon little sis! You got this!" everyone heard as Yang began to cheer for Ruby, who appeared to be nervous after seeing her teammates lose to the veterans.

Feeling compelled to help their blonde teammate out for reasons unknown, Weiss and Blake began to cheer for their leader as well.

"Just stay calm and you can win this!" Weiss yelled as Ruby began to walk onto the stage.

"Disregard and negative feelings and you'll do fine!" Blake followed up with.

Just the cheering of three girls started a competition as the crowd split on who to cheer for: Naomi Ellsworth, the veteran spell caster of Team STRN, or Ruby Rose, the underdog prodigy whom everyone knew was accepted two years early.

Glynda casted her protection spell on the two students and then proceeded to stand by for a minute as the cheering continued, hoping it would die down. Seeing that waiting was only making things worse, Glynda gave a small smirk and finally said as loud as she could the cue everyone was waiting for as if she were a tournament announcer herself.

"If both combatants are prepared, you may begin the match when ready!"

When Glynda finished, Ruby darted straight towards Naomi as the cheering seemed to reach a crescendo. Naomi jumped as high as she could as Ruby swung her scythe at her, opened her lexicon to a page with a spell that read "Telepathy" on one line as well as the spell recited to use it. While in the air, Naomi quickly turned to make eye contact with her opponent and muttered the spell.

"_Let's make this a good match! I want you to give it your all!_" Naomi thought. She then saw the scythe wielder begin to smirk right at her as well as give a small wink, telling Naomi that the message was received.

"_Only if you give your all too!_" was the message Ruby sent back as she jumped up to Naomi, their faces inches apart. Pausing for just a small moment as both students were in mid-air, she then swung her scythe downward as fast and as hard as she could, but was not fast enough as Naomi then yelled, "Copycat! Speed!" before disappearing in an emerald mist. She then reappeared in another misty cloud behind her opponent and proceeded to roundhouse Ruby down to the ground where she slid a few feet before regaining her balance. She then turned around and charged towards the still airborne spell caster, disappearing in a flurry of rose petals.

Naomi only had a split second to cast a spell, completely stopping Ruby only a few feet from her. That didn't stop the scythe wielder from attacking however, as she grabbed the very end of the massive weapon, swinging it in an upward motion. Given only a split second to react with such a risky move, Naomi managed to motion herself backwards just enough for the blade to pass between her legs. Just before it completely passed her, Naomi crossed her legs to prevent the body to continue without bringing her along for the ride. As the scythe reached the peak of its swing, she uncrossed her legs, releasing as it continued while she remained just above its wielder. Naomi brought her hand point blank to Ruby's face before casting another spell, causing her lexicon to glow and her hand spewing a massive stream of fire. As the fire disappeared, Naomi only saw what was left of a shower of burnt rose petals.

"_Wow, she's faster than I thought,_" Naomi thought just before she realized that Ruby had reappeared above her. She didn't even have a second to react as Ruby tried once more to land a solid blow on her, only to strike another cloud of emerald mist.

Naomi landed on the ground, panting just a little from the amount of aura she was using. She had been using more than she usually did, a lot more, in order to keep up with the speed demon. The spell caster then started to feel a sharp pain in her right arm. Looking at it, she saw a small gash releasing a slow stream of blood. Surprised by the unexpected sight, Naomi didn't see Ruby appear next to her swinging the bladeless side of her scythe, hitting her square in the stomach and sending her flying back.

As she landed, the rest of team STRN noticed their teammate's minor injury. While stunned, they were not as surprised as Naomi was.

"How did that happen?! Shouldn't Professor Goodwitch's barrier glyphs have kept that from happening?" Terrance asked continuing to watch the match.

"Hey Stacy, is it possible that the glyphs could have failed?" River asked their leader.

"No, the barriers are active, it's something else I believe." the chakram user replied.

"Then what?" Terrance asked briefly looking away from the fight.

"It's only a theory, but I believe that both Naomi and Ruby are actually moving too fast for the barrier glyphs to keep up with them."

"How does that work?" River asked with a confused look.

"Think of it sort of like a thunder and lightning effect, the barriers being the thunder and the person it's supposed to protect being the lightning. As you know, lightning always appears before you hear thunder, obviously because light travels faster than sound. The same sort of thing could be going on during the fight, even though there is a slim chance. As I said, it's only a theory."

"I see," River understood. "Well, surely Glynda might know what is going on, so she should intervene if things get out of hand."

Looking back at the fight, the audience became awestruck as all they could see was a storm of emerald mist and rose petals accompanied by the sound of shots being fired and spells being casted.

"_I'm using too much aura now,_" Naomi thought as both she and Ruby landed on the ground, pausing for just a moment. "_I need to get closer to her, but I only have one shot at this with the massive reach she has with that scythe._"

With every bit of aura she could muster, Naomi charged directly at Ruby who was preparing to deal what could be the finishing blow. As the massive blade swung down, Naomi spun to the side, dodging what surely would have been a fatal blow. Facing Ruby again, she slammed the palm of her hand directly to the scythe wielder's face, pushing her down to the ground with enough force to make her lose her grip on the weapon.

Naomi then shouted, "Vampiric Aura!" She then say Ruby's silver eyes widen as she began to glow a crimson red from her aura, which began to trail up Naomi's arm and covering her body. After a few seconds of tense silence, Naomi spike once more saying, "That should be enough." She then got off Ruby, disappearing in emerald mist once more.

Naomi allowed Ruby time to get up and retaliate before she began to attack her opponent once more with a flurry of various spells spewing fire, launching spears of ice, and anything else she could throw in her lexicon. While doing so, Ruby did what she could, dodging spells left and right while trying to counter with her scythe. Naomi could tell that she was tired, but still continued to fight on. Naomi was quite impressed at the young girl's endurance, still fighting even after being drained of some of her aura.

The fight continued for several minutes in front of the awestruck audience. Glynda even thought that she would have to call the match before the victor was decided. However, things changed with a single blow as Ruby struck Naomi with one end of her scythe in the stomach, causing the spell caster to hunch over in pain. Bringing up her scythe for the final blow, Ruby swung down with as much force as she could. Naomi tried to block by casting a protection spell of her own, making an artificial shield appear, only for it to be completely shattered by the massive blade. The scythe barely missed its mark, but served its purpose, as Naomi collapsed out of exhaustion.

"Good. It's finally over," was all that Ruby could say before she followed Naomi to the ground.

The crowd was silent for some time before one student started to awkwardly clap slowly, but as students began to join in, the claps came faster. Eventually, the audience was in a complete uproar, praising both students for the magnificent match displayed before them.

Glynda then walked to the front of the stage, quieting the students down before saying, "Before I start, may we please get these girls some medical attention?" Almost instantly, a group of nurses walked up on stage, taking the two girls to the infirmary. "Thank you. Now as you all saw, both students collapsed due to excessive use of aura, causing them to become exhausted and unable to continue fighting. In a tournament, the result would be considered a tie since neither student can continue.

This caused another uproar, with students demanding to see that a victor be announced. Glynda started off adamant, but eventually caved in to pressure.

"Very well, let us just see who the victor would be then."

The monitor above the stage then showed the two girls, each with a gauge representing their aura. After looking, the students cheered, both for the victor as well as the marvelous match. The screen showed that Ruby was barely able to pull out on top, her aura level just above Naomi's.

Knowing she could not quiet them down, Glynda announced "That will be all for today students, class is dismissed." The bell then rang and students began to flood outside, talking about the match that just took place before them.

Author's Note: Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it when I could. Unfortunately, this may be my last chapter for a while, as I am very busy with some classes. I honestly barely have any free time whatsoever now, only maybe getting an hour or two if I'm lucky. I will try to continue writing and posting whenever I can, but I will not be able to post weekly updates for a few months as my classes need to take priority. I hope that everyone understands and that you have all enjoyed reading this so far. Some reviews would be great for constructive criticism as well as inspiration to keep me so enthusiastic at times. Once again, I hope that everyone enjoyed reading this and that you all have a great RWBY day! This is Khman signing off for what will be quite a while. I hope to hear from everyone when I come back!


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